Latest news

Open Morning, Wednesday 22nd August, 9.30am

Visit Kinma

Kinma Primary and Preschool hold an Open Day or Evening in Term 2, and school tours run once a term. We warmly invite you to see first-hand how we actively integrate creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, communication and collaboration skills into our curriculum at Kinma Open Day.

Open Day operates as a normal school day so families can experience a day at Kinma Primary and Preschool, observe students participating in classes, take a school tour, hear informative talks, partake in Q&A groups, meet staff and parents and join us for lunch.

Reflections of an Intern in Group 3

Last week was, some would say, a typical ‘Kinma week’. Whole school meeting on Monday afternoon, Tinkering Day on Tuesday, Choice afternoon on Wednesday, Science week excursion for Groups 2 & 3 on Thursday and most of the balance of the time in Group 3 devoted to a student directed ‘inquiry based learning approach’ to exploring aspects of Culture and Identity.

Against this background, I found myself as an intern, reflecting on ‘where and how did I practice my skills as a teacher this week in this flow of learning?’ Initially, I felt that I was somehow missing out!However on deeper reflection and discussion with Suz and Juli, I realised that not only was deep learning taking place for the students through both regular and non-regular curriculum work, but also for me as a pre service teacher.

Playgroup - Mondays during school term

If you have young children and are interested in a local playgroup, come and try our Playgroup.Kinma Playgroup will resume on Monday 1st February at 9:30am. Playgroup operates from our multi-purpose meeting space and large outdoor playground in a beautiful bushland setting, every Monday during term time, 9:30am-11:30am.

Visits are $3 / family to cover morning tea and supplies. There are no membership fees.There is no need to book or to commit to a full term. Simply come along on any Monday during term time that suits you and your child.

Play is children's work

Maria Montessori wrote these words and many educators since have wisely used them as a basis for acknowledging the vital role of play in learning. Defining play could take us an entire learning forum but for the purposes of this article, we will call it engagement in a chosen activity which can be spontaneous or planned. It is distinguished from other activities in that it is chosen by the participant/s not directed by another.

Many adults have an ambivalent relationship to play, thinking that it is something kids will do anyway and that unless they ‘work’ hard on something , there is little value in their activity. Many definitions of play are hence of the sort …. engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose. In Kinma terms, such definitions miss the core learning built into the activity of play; that in fact the creator of the play can have a most serious and practical purpose, whether the purpose is or is not known.

It serves us well to think of not only children at play but adult scientists, artists and explorers. Without play it is difficult to imagine just what such people would do.

Focus and tinkering at Kinma

The ability to focus on one activity or experience for a considerable period of time is universally agreed upon as very beneficial in the suite of learning skills. It can also be incredibly enjoyable and according to Csikszentmihalyi, author of Flow, when it is, the learning and outcomes are enormous for the individual and the community of which they are a part.

What does focus look like at Kinma? Where is it found? How do teachers arrange scenarios to encourage it?

Alone Time is not about loneliness

Being immersed in alone time during holidays is a dear and valued joy; whether in my room, in the ocean or in the magnificent silence of the Mitchell library. Such aloneness, feeling uncomfortable at parties (hence you will find me most oft in the kitchen at the Kinma auction) and finding shopping malls near impossible does not mean I always like to be alone nor that I suffer from loneliness, it simply means that solitude is vital to my wellbeing.

Listening and reading Susan Cain makes me realise that not only am I not alone in blissing to be alone but that being alone benefits my creativity (and that of the planet) as well as my productivity (and that of the planet). Sounds win-win in anyone’s language.

Moving bodies, Growing minds

You see a group of 5 and 6 year olds on the basketball court; jumping rope and counting forwards, throwing baskets, counting backwards from 100 collectively and timing how long it takes them with a stopwatch, drawing chalk hopscotch with even numbers on one patch and odd numbers on the other and then devising assorted throwing mechanisms for their stones. Is this a PE lesson? Perhaps Maths? Science? One child is decorating her hopscotch patch with continuous patterns, could it be Art?

Kinma's approach: anything but basic

The government this week announced ‘Back to Basics’ curriculum. It supports findings by the Catholic Education system and Queensland University researchers who feel that our children lack morals and a grounding in their 3 Rs- Riting, Reading, Rithmetic. Their answer is to stop ‘tokenistic’ thematic based learning which fuse big-ideas such as indigenoushistory, sustainable existence and social justice and reinstate a ‘basic’ program where the children learn phonics, number and ‘basic’ Christian/ Judeo value systems (based on reward and punishment).

Kinma’s goals for learning are not basic. They have never been basic in the 42 years of its existence. The goals are as rich and varied, as complex and challenging as the children who help to design them. It is my hope that we will never reduce them to ‘basic’.

How is Kinma different?

Perspectives on Kinma by Kris Chikarovski after his 20 week internship at Kinma

I often get asked by my fellow Uni students: “What is Kinma like?” “How is it different?” While I respond in the moment in a way that seems to satisfy, I asked myself these questions and I try to answer them here from 3 perspectives.

Kinma Preschool: Exceeding National Quality Standard

Kinma Preschool completed the new NQS assessment and ratings process with the Education and Care Services Directorate, NSW Office of Education and Communities in November 2013. We are pleased to announce that we have been assessed with an overall rating of: EXCEEDING NATIONAL QUALITY STANDARD

How can we talk about Kinma with others?

Many families who start the learning journey at Kinma are the first in their extended families to take a step out of the mainstream schooling paradigm . Whenever we do anything in our lives that is contra the mass, we are likely to meet resistance in one form or another. One reason why this may happen is because those who are close, share some element of a value system. If you challenge a key element of it, those folk may feel that you are threatening not only the friendship, kinship or bond you share but their very sense of the world.

Hence, in every interaction we share with people after stepping into the exciting learning Kinma experience, we plant seeds of the very learning/ unlearning/ relearning each one of us undergoes. For as you realise, it is not only your children who are exploring differently to how you did as children but us adults too, are being opened to new ways; new ways of thinking, creating, parenting, making decisions. We cannot help but consciously and unconsciously experience the amazing ripples for ourselves and all with whom we are in contact.

Open days

Kinma's next Preschool Open Morning is on Wednesday 22nd August, 2018, 9.30 - 11.30am.Kinma Preschool is a delightful haven offering play-based learning in a spacious, natural setting. Hear more about how play and imagination are integral to our education approach and how children can choose to participate in a wide range of activities during the Preschool day, including French, basketball, bushwalks, gardening, cooking and more. Morning Tea will be provided over Q&A and a chat with staff and parents. To book in call 9450 0738.